A remarkable true story about saving life in wartime, not taking it'A story destined to be told. A fascinating history of blood for the front line. Humbling, awe inspiring and life affirming.' Sue Black, author of All That RemainsThe Lifesavers were a little-known band of men and women at the forefront of groundbreaking battlefield care in the Second World War.As part of a new and pioneering service, unconventional...

6 June 1944: the day Allied forces crossed the Channel and began fighting their way into Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. Initiated by airborne units and covered by air and naval bombardment, the Normandy landings were the most ambitious combined airborne and amphibious assault ever attempted. Their success marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.Drawing on thousands of hours of eyewitness testimony recorded by the Imperial War Museum, Forgotten Voices ...

'The Gestapo kept me three days in this interrogation house. They especially wanted to know what I did after my escape, and precise things on the organisation of the SOE. And just for fun I suspect, because I had really not much to tell them, they pulled one of my toenails out...' - Robert Sheppard, SOE agentThe Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British organisation created early in World War 2 to encourage resistance and carry out sabotage behind enemy lines...

Drawing on long-classified documents, Target: Italy is the official history of the war waged by Britain's Special Operations Executive on Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy. It is the first full account of SOE's clandestine efforts to strike at Italy and sever its alliance with Nazi Germany, uncovering missions as remarkable as a plot to assassinate Mussolini and plans to arm the Mafia.It is also the first in-depth history of SOE's attempts at causing trouble inside an enemy...

In 1943, small teams of elite British soldiers began parachuting into the mountains of Axis-occupied Albania. They were members of Britain's Special Operations Executive, and their task was to find and arm bands of local guerillas and harass the Axis as best they could. None had been to Albania before, or knew what awaited them.Trying to survive in extreme conditions and formidable terrain, these young Britons lived in constant danger of capture and death, and were plagued by illne...

The Victoria Cross is one of the worlds most famous medals. It was introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 for most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy, and has been awarded only 1,358 times.Exploring the actions and events that lead to the VC being awarded, Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross is full of heroic tales, drama and action from the last century. Some test...

A remarkable true story about saving life in wartime, not taking itThe Lifesavers were a little-known band of men and women at the forefront of groundbreaking battlefield care in the Second World War.As part of a new and pioneering service, unconventional and iconoclastic, they pushed and pulled blood from hundreds of thousands of donors into the veins of battle casualties all over the world. Deploying expert teams – officially the smallest units i...

From the end of 1941 to 1945 a pivotal but often overlooked conflict was being fought in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War 2 - the Burma Campaign.In 1941 the Allies fought in a disastrous retreat across Burma against the Japanese - an enemy more prepared, better organised and more powerful than anyone had imagined. Yet in 1944, following key battles at Kohima and Imphal, and daring operations behind enemy lines by the Chindits, the Commonwealth army were back, retaking lost...

A gripping biography of Admiral Nelson, Napoleonic War hero and one of Britain's greatest naval tacticians.In the Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson sent the signal from his flagship HMS Victory, "England expects that every man will do his duty." His defeat of the French that day in 1805 was a decisive turning point in the Napoleonic Wars, establishing British control of the seas. His death in that heroic battle gave those words immortal signi...

'Between Friday and Monday we never slept at all. Everyone's face was one mass of sand . The guns were so hot, all the paint had gone' Bombardier Ray EllisHad the Allies lost in North Africa, Rommel's Afrika Korps would have swept through the Middle East, cutting the vital supply line through the Suez Canal to Australia and India, and taking the oilfields of the Persian Gulf. Britain would have been isolated, without oil, and unable to fight.These historic ...

On 22 January 1879 a 20,000-strong Zulu army decimated the British camp at Isandlwana. On the back of this victory 3,000–4,000 Zulu warriors swept towards the garrison of Rorke's Drift, expecting to devastate the c.500-strong British and colonial force there. However, this small, but stalwart group of brave British soldiers withstood this overwhelming force over the next forty-eight hours and ultimately repelled them in a British victory that has been immortalised in books...

Drawing material from the Imperial War Museum's extensive aural archive, Joshua Levine brings together voices from both sides of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain to give us a unique, complete and compelling picture of this turbulent time.In June 1940, British citizens prepared for an imminent German onslaught. Hitler's troops had overrun Holland, Belgium and France in quick succession, and the British people anticipated an invasion would soon be upon them. From July to October, ...